State Plant Board OKs dicamba ban

The state Plant Board voted 9-5 Friday to stop the sales and use of dicamba, a herbicide suspected of damaging thousands of acres of soybeans, vegetables, fruits and trees this growing season.

The emergency rule adopted by the board is good for 120 days. Before it can take effect, however, the ban has to be approved by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, presented to the executive subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council and filed with the secretary of state’s office.

That process could take a week or two, Terry Walker, the Plant Board director, said.

The vote to ban the herbicide, made on a motion by Larry Jayroe of Forrest City, who represents fertilizer and oil mills, also expedites the board’s rule-making process for a new state law to levy fines of up to $25,000 for “egregious” violations of state regulations concerning the spraying of dicamba. The new fines take effect Aug. 1. The board’s vote on Friday will put its new penalty system into effect Aug. 2.

As of 10 a.m. Friday, the board had received 247 complaints of suspected dicamba damage across 19 counties, mostly in eastern Arkansas. Mississippi County, with 81, had the most complaints. Craighead County had 34, and Crittenden County had 32.

“I appreciate the hard work of all of those involved in this process,” Hutchinson said in a statement. “Once the Plant Board has submitted the emergency rule to my office, I will review the proposed rule in more detail. I have consistently supported the Plant Board in its protection of Arkansas agriculture, and I expect this recommended rule will ultimately go to the legislature for additional review and action. “

Friday’s special meeting was the second this week for the board. The board on Tuesday voted 8-6 to stop the sales and use of dicamba, but that motion was mistakenly ruled to be defeated.

The board met Friday to try to clear up the mistake, voting 13-1 to correct the minutes of Tuesday’s meeting and note that the ban actually had been approved by a majority of the board.

Barry Walls of Harrisburg, who was appointed by Hutchinson to the board in March to represent rice growers, said the mix-up prompted him to change his vote from a no on Tuesday to a yes on Friday.

“They [supporters of the ban] won on Tuesday,” he said. “I thought it was only fair and right to vote yes today. I still haven’t changed my mind about the dicamba technology. We’ve had some problems with it. I don’t know whether the problems are with the technology itself or with misapplication by farmers, but I do know we’ve had enough damage with it that it’s time to try to find a solution to help all of agriculture.”

Walls said he also voted for the emergency rule because it expedites the stiffer penalties for illegal spraying.

Lawmakers who sponsored the legislation to increase the fines for improper dicamba use failed to include an emergency clause. With an emergency clause, those fines would already be in place and a better deterrent against illegal spraying. The current maximum fine is $1,000.

The new vote also renders moot a vote Tuesday to require that farmers use hooded sprayers when using dicamba and require a 1-mile downwind buffer to dicamba-susceptible crops. Current regulations allowing dicamba use on pastures remain in place.

Jerry Hyde of Paragould, who represents the pest-management industry, also switched his vote from Tuesday. “I was leaning Tuesday for a ban but backed off after hearing from farmers who said they’d had no problems,” Hyde said.

The 13-1 vote to correct the Tuesday vote swayed him to vote for the ban and expedited process to implement the stiffer fines, Hyde said.

Other supporters of the 120-day emergency ban on Friday were Russell Black of Fayetteville, Russell Bragg of Fort Smith, Terry Fuller of Poplar Grove (Phillips County), Greg Hay of Conway, Thomas Post of Altus and Dennie Stokes of Earle.

Opposing the ban were: Walter “Bruce” Alford of Lewisville, Kyle Baltz of Pocahontas, Robert Campbell of Witts Springs (Searcy County), Marty Eaton of Jonesboro and Jammy Turner of Gillett (Arkansas County).

Board chairman Otis Howe didn’t attend Friday’s meeting because of a family emergency. He voted for the ban on Tuesday. As acting chairman, Danny Finch of Jonesboro, who represents cotton farmers, didn’t vote on Tuesday or Friday.

Few, if any, of the board members believe every farmer will abide by the ban. “Farmers will keep on spraying, won’t they?” Turner asked.

“Certainly there’s a chance,” Jayroe said.

Only one dicamba herbicide — BASF’s Engenia — is legal this year in Arkansas for in-crop use, but officials believe older, more volatile formulations are being sprayed illegally.

In a statement Friday afternoon, BASF said, “A more prudent approach would take all viewpoints, risks, benefits and confirmed facts into full consideration.”

The Engenia brand is marketed for soybeans and cotton genetically modified by Monsanto to be tolerant of dicamba, a broadleaf herbicide being used to fight pigweed that has grown resistant to other weedkillers. However, other varieties of soybeans, cotton, vegetables, fruits, peanuts, shrubs and trees aren’t dicamba tolerant.

Monsanto’s dicamba herbicide won’t be allowed in Arkansas until studies of potential off-target movement are completed.

The governor’s approval of the board’s proposed ban is required by an executive order Hutchinson signed shortly after taking office in January 2015. Hutchinson said state agencies and boards under his control must submit new or revised rules to his office for approval. Hutchinson said the order was needed to ensure any new regulations weren’t an undue burden on businesses.

After the Plant Board voted in December to not allow Monsanto’s dicamba herbicide in Arkansas, Hutchinson eventually signed off on the board’s recommendation.

The number of complaints this year exceeds the total of about two dozen filed last year. Of the state’s 3 million acres of soybeans this growing season, about 2 million are of the Xtend dicamba-tolerant variety, far higher than last year, according to estimates. Last year, there were no formulations of dicamba that could legally be sprayed across crops.

Agriculture officials in Missouri, Tennessee and Mississippi also have reported dicamba damage there and said they expect the number of complaints to grow as farmers get deeper into the spraying season.